Forever and Always
by ThisCity16
Summary: An almost disgustingly long songfic to Parachute's 'Forever and Always'. Chalek! It's rated T because I'm totally paranoid, it's seriously like a K probably haha.


_She's sitting at the table, the hours get later  
>He was supposed to be here<br>She's sure he would have called  
>She waits a little longer, there's no one in the driveway<em>

_No one's said they've seen him  
>Why, is something wrong?<em>

Chloe King sat at her dining room table, glancing again at the glowing green numbers on the microwave. _9:43_. Alek said, he'd be over around 8 with dinner, but he had yet to show. She had a terrible feeling down in her gut that something was wrong, but she kept shaking her head and pushing it away, refusing to even entertain the idea that he, her beloved protector, was hurt. It worried her even more as she glanced at her phone every twenty seconds seeing it dark. For around another hour, she perched on the edge of her chair, eventually resting her head on her arms. A 'beep' from her phone nearly scared the daylights out of her, but she quickly ran a hand through her untamed blonde curls and rushed to pick it up. It felt like someone had tried to shove a baseball down her throat when she saw the name 'Amy' on the screen.

'Chloe!' her text read. Chloe typed back a quick, 'Hey Ames, have you seen Alek lately?' before standing up and pacing around the kitchen island. Amy's response came within seconds, a simple, 'No, why, is something wrong?'

The blond Mai girl didn't bother responding to her excitable friend before slumping down on her tan couch once again.

_She looks back to the window  
>Suddenly the phone rings<br>A voice says something's happened  
>That she should come right now<em>

A ring of the phone made her jump, and she quickly picked it up with a hurried, "Alek?" without even checking the caller I.D.

"Is this Chloe King?" a unfamiliar female voice asked from the other end. Her spirits dropped as she replied with, "Yes, who is this?"

"This is Kaiser Hospital, on Ocean Boulevard in downtown San Francisco." As soon as the words came across the line, Chloe knew what had happened.

"You were listed as an emergency contact for Aleksandr Petrov, I'm told you're his fiancé, correct?" Chloe choked back a sob and whispered, "yeah."

"There's been an incident, Mr. Petrov is in critical condition. You should come right now if you can—we don't know if he'll hold out much longer." Chloe quickly agreed and hung up the phone before immediately bursting into sobs. She fell down to the ground and pulled her knees up to her forehead, crying like she never had before.

_Her mind goes to December  
>She thinks of when he asked her<br>He bent down on his knees first  
>And he said<em>

Her mind drifted through everything she and Alek had gone through. From the first time she met him when his cousin had tackled her to the ground after the first time she died, to the time they shared their first kiss, to when Jasmine and Valentina, his only real family, and Brian, Chloe's first love, had died. Finally she replayed the moment after she had successfully reunited the Mai and Order. The feeling of victory flowed through her blood, and despite her noticeable injuries, she ran up to Alek and hugged him, the blood on the front of his shirt soaking onto hers. She remembered him taking in a sharp breathe in surprise, before he reciprocated, pulling her up off the ground and spinning her around, yelling in happiness.

Chloe remembered him setting her down gently and staring down into her eyes smiling like she'd never seen him smile. She remembered him slowly, apprehensively sinking down onto one knee, and pulling out a small blood-stained box from the pocket of his ripped jeans. He held it out to her, no expression on his face before he stood and told her to open it. She remembered opening it, gazing at the pristine, un-damaged ring inside it. It had a huge diamond on it, with a silver band, and all she could do was gasp and stare at him with her big blue eyes. Every detail-his voice, the dried blood in his blonde hair; the huge gash down his cheek—was perfect in her mind as she remembered back to the day when he looked down into her eyes and kissed her before saying,__

_"I want you forever, forever and always  
>Through the good and the bad and the ugly<br>We'll grow old together  
>Forever and always"<em>

_She pulls up to the entrance  
>She walks right to the front desk<br>They lead her down a million halls, a maze that's never ending  
>They talk about what happened but she can barely hear them<em>

Almost robot-like, Chloe grabbed a jacket, walked out and climbed into her avocado-green Kia Soul. She rolled down the dark San Francisco streets, and before she knew it, the looming white building that read 'Kaiser Permadente' across the top was in front of her. She pulled into a close parking spot and walked through the automatic doors without expression on her face. A too-perky brunette greeted her at the front desk.

"Hello, how may I help you?" Chloe looked helplessly at the smiling girl delivering the words.

"I—I need to know which room Alek Petrov is in." The receptionist spun on her heel and filed through some things on the computer, before picking up an intercom and asking a Dr. Lindero to come to the front desk.

"You can have a seat while you wait, miss," the girl instructed, pointing towards some worn red benches against the walls. Shakily, Chloe approached them and took a seat, blankly staring at the white walls in front of her. People mulled about her, but she took no notice of them, even when an irate lady tripped over her outstretched ankles. It slowly felt like the life was draining out of her, like she could feel Alek's draining as well.

What seemed like hours later, a lady who appeared to be in her 40s with short blonde hair walked into the room.

"Ms. King?" the woman asked. When Chloe didn't respond, the lady put her hand on the distracted girl's shoulder.

"Chloe King?" she asked again. Chloe's eyes darted to meet hers.

"Huh? Uh, yeah."

"I'm Dr. Katherine Lindero. You can call me Kathy." Chloe nodded slowly.

"Hi… Kathy." A million emotions filled her; happiness at seeing Alek finally, dread of the state he'd be in, anger that this happened to him. Nonetheless, she got up and began to follow Kathy out of the waiting room. Somewhere in the maze of halls, another doctor, a younger man, joined them. They were speaking to her, explaining details, though she knew that what they were saying was obviously incorrect—Chloe knew it wasn't a mugging that had done this to Alek. She knew what must have happened in order for him, a brave Mai warrior, to be taken down.

_She tries to keep a straight face as she walks into the room  
>She sits by his bedside, holds his hand too tight<br>They talk about the kids they're gonna have and the good life  
>The house on the hillside, where they would stay<br>_

Chloe tried to keep her face neutral as to not hint to Alek how big of an emotional wreck she was right then; she knew that would do nothing for him. She needed to be strong for him. When they reached the door marked with a slip of paper reading, 'Petrov, Aleksandr,' she sniffed up her last tears and gently pushed the door open. The sight before her took the light out of her bright blue eyes.

Alek's still form lay in front of her. His beautiful brown eyes were closed, and his highlighted blonde hair was mussed, with dried blood all throughout it. A huge gash ran vertically along the right side of his smooth face. A small trail of blood ran from his nose, which was wrapped up tightly in gauze. A blue cast adorned his right wrist.

The most terrifying part was all the wires; and IV was pushed into the underside of his elbow, and he was hooked up to machines everywhere. A small monitor sat in the corner, quietly but steadily beating with Alek's sleeping heart.

"Alek," she breathed involuntarily. His eyes shot open at the noise, and they made eye contact. She saw him trying to talk, unable to really get words out at first. Soon, they did.

"Chloe, I'm so sorry I let you down. I'm sorry I let the Order hurt you, though it was only mentally." It killed her inside that those were the first words he said to her. He though he let her down? Far from it.

"Alek," she began, walking up to the side of his bed and taking his hand gently, "You did _not_ let me down." Silent tears slid out of her eyes as she looked down at the only person she'd ever love, broken.

"And you're not going to now. You know why? Because you're going to get better, Alek. You're strong, and I know you'll get better. You are _invincible_, Alek Petrov. You're going to be okay, and I'm going to be okay, and the last of the Order's going to finally accept that the Mai and humans have been united, and never hurt us or our friends ever again. We're going to get married in a couple weeks, and we're going to have kids and we're going to buy that house just outside the city that we've been looking at for the past month, and we're going to raise our family there."

Chloe hadn't realized she was full on sobbing and yelling until she stopped and saw Alek's faint shocked expression.

"Chloe, my dream has always been exactly that. And we'd stay in that house.

_Stay there forever, forever and always  
>Through the good and the bad and the ugly<br>We'll grow old together, and always remember  
>Whether rich or for poor or for better<br>We'll still love each other, forever and always."_

Alek sighed as well as he could manage. "But I'm dying Chloe. It's time. Someone up there decided I was going to be the one to go. I wish you'd never met me Chloe, because I hate to see you hurting like this, and I wish I could just take this back, and you could have the _human_ life you wanted, and Jasmine and I had never even known you. Unfortunately, that's not the case, and I'm so, so sorry."

Chloe's heart slowly broke as she listened to the man she loved saying he wished she had never met him.__

_Then she gets an idea and calls in the nurses  
>Brings up the chaplain and he says a couple verses<br>She borrows some rings from the couple next door  
>Everybody's laughing as the tears fall on the floor<br>She looks into his eyes, and she says  
><em>

Suddenly, and idea popped into her clouded mind. She shouted for the nurses to come quickly, and ordered for them to get the chaplain. They didn't protest, and soon returned with an older man. She ran next door and asked the older couple if she could borrow their rings briefly, for she was marrying a dying man. When she returned and Alek saw what was in her hands, he let out a weak laugh as tears slowly spilled out of his eyes. Chloe even saw tears glistening in the nurses eyes as they stood and smiled, listening to the chaplain recite several verses from the Bible he held in his hand.

"I do," Chloe breathed when he finished.

"I do," Alek choked out, barely audibly. Chloe couldn't help but break out into a half-sob, half-grin, as Alek manages to speak once again.

"_I want you forever, forever and always  
>Through the good and the bad and the ugly<br>We'll grow old together, and always remember  
>Whether happy or sad or whatever<br>We'll still love each other, forever and always  
>Forever and always, forever and always."<br>_

_She finishes the vows but the beeps are getting too slow  
>His voice is almost too low<br>As he says,_

"_I love you forever, forever and always  
>Please just remember even if I'm not there<br>I'll always love you, forever and always."_

"I love you too Alek," Chloe whispered as the beeping slowly came to a monotone and his eyes fluttered shut. She glanced down at the ring on his unmoving finger, and leaned down to kiss him one last time. His lips were cold as she quickly pecked him. She wasn't crying; she didn't even have the strength in her as she stood watching his lifeless body.

Slowly, she reached down to pull the ring off his finger. Chloe got up silently, humming a tune she didn't know she knew. When she walked through the door of the room next door to return the rings, she saw the woman and man smiling warmly at her.

"I'm very sorry, Chloe." At the mention of her name she jerked her head up and realized it was the old lady who had said it. However, the lady was no longer very old, and neither was the man. Impossibly silky straight black hair hung down to her waist, and her eyes glowed an inhuman shade of green. Her skin was pale—almost gray—but impossibly smooth. She literally seemed to glow. The man looked to be in his 30's with short, close-cropped brown hair and stubble on his face. He was very muscular, and had the same green eyes as the woman.

"Baset." It meant to come out as a question, but it ended up more as a statement. Baset gazed at Chloe, nodding.

"Yes." Chloe though over what this meant, before it hit her—Baset was the reason Alek was dead. Her facial expression collapsed into one of pure rage.

"You're despicable," Chloe suddenly hissed, throwing the rings against the floor and spinning on her heel to leave.

"No." Baset said, and Chloe felt herself freeze. She tried to move towards the door, but she couldn't control her limbs.

"Let me go!" she shrieked angrily, while Baset just glared at her.

"Chloe," Baset began, ignoring her protests, "I'm a lot like you. This is my protector, Joseph. He's everything to me, we are married in a sense. You don't really believe the people inspired by Joe here would only get one measly life now, did you?"

When Chloe could feel her limbs again she turned to face Baset, shocked.

"What?" Baset smiled gently at her confused expression.

"The Protector of the Uniter has 3 lives my dear. Alek will be okay; this is only his first loss. And trust me when I say I know Alek, I've seen him and he won't lose others, the boy is unexplainably strong. Go back to him, Chloe King." Chloe wordlessly blinked and exited the room. Thoughts rushed her brain, threatening to send her overboard, but with her advanced hearing she heard a slow steady beeping from Alek's room. Gently cracking open the door, the first thing Chloe saw was the familiar caramely-brown eyes staring at her. Before she could even register what was going on she was upon him, kissing him. He reciprocated quickly, all the love they had for each other flowing through it. When they finally pulled apart, neither spoke. They stared into each others eyes for what seemed like hours.

Alek suddenly spoke quietly. "I'll never leave you again, Chloe."


End file.
